QUAKERTOWN STUDENTS DO WELL ON STATE-MANDATED TESTS

CHUCK AYERS, The Morning CallTHE MORNING CALL

More students in the Quakertown Community School District need help with reading and fewer need help with math compared to last year, according to the results of a state-mandated test given three grades this spring.

Just over 13 percent of the students in grades three, five and eight who were given the Test for Essential Learning and Literacy Skills (TELLS) this year will enter remedial programs in reading next fall, up less than 1 percent over the number of students needing assistance this year, according to Jeffrey Miller, assistant to the superintendent for curriculum.

In raw numbers, Miller said 110 of the 821 students taking the minimum competency test will receive help in reading.

Compared to statewide results, far fewer Quakertown students on a percentage basis failed the tests.

On a state level, 22.4 percent of the third-grade students failed to attain minimum standards in reading; 25.3 percent failed in fifth grade and 22.5 percent in eighth grade. In Quakertown, 13.8 percent of the third-grade students didn't meet minimum reading standards; 11.2 percent of fifth-graders failed, as did 15.1percent of eighth-graders.

In third and fifth grades, the number of students needing reading assistance dropped 1.2 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively. It is only in the area of eighth-grade reading that more district students failed the test, Miller said. That increased to 15.1 percent, up from 10 percent last year.

In math, 96 of the 821 students or 11.7 percent taking the test need remediation compared to 129 or 15.8 percent needing help last year, according to the results.

By grade, 31 third-grade students, or 6.4 percent of the class, failed to meet the minimum math scores. Last year, 34 students, or 12 percent of the third-graders, failed to meet the minimum level. Statewide, 15.4 percent of third grade-students didn't pass muster in math.

In fifth grade, only 16 students didn't meet minimum levels in math. That is 10.2 percent of the class, down from 17 percent last year. Statewide, 16.1 percent didn't make the cutoff this year.

"That's probably as well as we've ever done on a TELLS test. We had very good scores in math in grades three and five," Miller said.

Twenty-nine eighth-grade students or 18 percent of the class will need remedial help in math. Last year the same percentage didn't meet the cutoff standards. That compares to a 23.7 percent failure rate statewide.

Miller said the number of students who will be placed in remedial programs next fall probably will decline when students who failed the test by one or two points are tested again.

The district routinely re-tests students who narrowly miss the cutoffs in order to assure just those students needing help are placed in the program.

"One careless mistake can put some children into remediation unnecessarily, " he said.